[9163] in www-talk@info.cern.ch
Re: CGI scripts / Location header
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Daniel DuBois)
Fri Oct 13 15:44:16 1995
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 14:36:15 -0500
To: hedlund@best.com (M. Hedlund), Daniel DuBois <ddubois@rafiki.spyglass.com>,
www-talk@w3.org
From: Daniel DuBois <ddubois@rafiki.spyglass.com>
Resent-From: www-talk@w3.org
>The CGI script should decide. If it can't cope with not finding the file,
>it will not send a proper response and likely cause a 500 (or an empty
>document). If it can, it should send a 404 with some HTML explaining the
>problem. If you send a 500 from a properly-functioning script, it will
>appear as though the script is malfunctioning when it is not.
I'm not sure that I really understand your reply.
Are you saying that if a script makes the mistake of sending back a
"Location: local-missing-file.html", that the server sends back a 404 Not
found is the script's fault, and the server shouldn't be concerned with
validating the actions of the script? It sounds like you are.
I can buy that, but the actual act of looking for the file, and generating
the error is done by the server at this point, not by the script. All the
script did was generate the Location:, and is now completey out-of-the-loop
and not in control. Anyway, since I'm lazy, I think I'll just leave it as
is: ie, 404 Not Found.
-----
Dan DuBois, Software Animal http://www.spyglass.com/~ddubois/
I absolutely do not speak for Spyglass.
